This review originally appeared on Goodreads on September 21, 2012.

Wizzywig: Portrait of a Serial Hacker

By Ed Piskor – Top Shelf Productions – July 4, 2012

Review by Robin Marx

This comic is like a hacker version of Forrest Gump, with fictional character Kevin “Boingthump” Phenicle taking readers on an abbreviated tour of hacker history.

The story starts with the early blue-boxing and phone phreaking days, up through the rise of BBSes and the Internet, finally touching upon Wikileaks and Adrian Lamo. Real historical events are woven into the narrative (from Kevin Mitnick's exploits and the Morris Worm to comparatively obscure topics like the Secret Service's raid on Steve Jackson Games over the GURPS Cyberpunk RPG supplement), and like Forrest Gump, Boingthump often finds himself directly involved or tangentially associated with the events of the time.

While the history lesson is fun, the original parts of the story are compelling as well. While flawed and lacking impulse control, Kevin is an appealing character and his exploits were likewise engaging.

The artwork is excellent throughout. There's an artful ugliness to a lot of Piskor's portrait work that seems influenced by Mad Magazine and underground comix.

Ed Piskor's more recent work has been popping up on BoingBoing, with both sporadic, stand-alone Brain Rot strips and the consistently excellent Hip Hop Family Tree series.

WIZZYWIG is a quick, fun read and recommended to people with an interest in computers.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on October 6, 2012.

The Pirate's Dilemma: How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism

By Matt Mason – Free Press – January 8, 2008

Review by Robin Marx

This was a fun read with some interesting points, but taken as a whole Mason's argument is a little facile.

Most of the book consists of examples of (generally youth-oriented) subcultures that developed into major commercial or cultural successes. Mason's examples include punk (focusing on its D.I.Y. ethos as an example of the pirate spirit), hip-hop, early disco, etc. All of these subcultures were created and expanded outside of the mainstream before being absorbed or incorporated (some would say co-opted) by it. Mason argues that existing commercial interests ignore or marginalize these movements at their own peril.

Mason's “pirate's dilemma” extends from this, stating that rather than wasting effort trying to stamp out piracy, companies are better off competing with pirates. (“Pirate's Dilemma” is a bit of a misnomer; pirates experience no such dilemma, it's the entrenched commercial interests that have to adapt) When that happens, society has a whole benefits. Sounds good on the surface.

The problem is that Mason's definition of a “pirate” is incredibly broad. His pirates aren't just those who infringe upon copyright (i.e., how the term is most commonly used today), they're basically anyone who operates outside the established system, or anyone who participates in youth culture. This definition wasn't especially convincing. Mash-up artists and other remix culture participants use existing work to create new material; defining them as “pirates” seems reasonable. However, the early punks described in this book were explicitly about rejecting existing work and building something new. Both mash-up artists and punks are pirates according to Mason, but it seems doubtful that most people would agree with him.

In the end, this is an interesting look about how, as noted in the book's subtitle, youth culture can have a cultural impact and serve as a source of revenue to savvy marketers. It's not, however, a particularly deep or convincing look at piracy. The use of the word piracy acts as a red herring, and deleting the few brief references to copyright infringement would result in a stronger book.

★★☆☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on September 24, 2012.

Free: The Future of a Radical Price

By Chris Anderson – Grand Central Publishing – June 22, 2009

Review by Robin Marx

“Business books are basically romance novels for men. Silly fantasies, terrible writing, large type, cheap paper and one good idea per book.” – @BenedictEvans @Twitter.com

It's becoming clear that freemium business models cannot be ignored, and this book heralds those models as the way of the future. For digital content in particular, Anderson argues that the march to free is inevitable. While laudably detailed in some respects, this book is disappointingly glib and superficial in others.

Anderson unleashes a veritable deluge of cases in which free services or content can play a role in a successful business, but while he acknowledges some of the concerns held by skeptics, all too often he dismisses them out of hand without effectively rebutting them. Sheryl Crow is concerned about the increasing difficulty of selling music? Pshaw, says Anderson, you'll make it all back on live performances and merchandise sales! I'm not a particular fan of her music, but I'm willing to bet that she has a more functional knowledge of the music industry than a dude from Wired. But maybe she's just a square and not with the hip new digital economy, man.

Another concern is that many of Anderson's success stories have, in more recent years, turned out to be not so successful. He mentions Digg, which was huge for a while before becoming a shell of its former self. Facebook has had trouble providing value for shareholders. (Facebook's inability to provide a return on investment for advertisers is actually called out in the text, but subsequently glossed over.) Freemium game giant Zynga is seeing huge drops in profit. He cites Radiohead's pay-what-you-want album In Rainbows as a great success, but doesn't mentioned the fact that Radiohead abandoned this model after about three months in favor of CD sales and standard iTunes distribution. If pay-what-you-want was such an unalloyed success, why didn't the band stick with it?

The whole book is written with a wide-eyed, breathless tone that immediately puts this reader on his guard. Free is the way of the future, man, and if you don't get it you're a fossil. (Ignore the burned out husks of countless companies that were unable to turn a profit with freemium.)

Despite what this book says, I think the jury is still out on freemium. There's been a huge die-off of freemium gaming companies over the last year or so, and other companies are struggling. I suspect we're in the middle of another, more low-key, dotcom bubble. In the end, freemium will probably resume its place as just one tool of many, rather than become some dominating trend.

★★☆☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on August 23, 2013.

Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form

By Anna Anthropy – Seven Stories Press – March 20, 2012

Review by Robin Marx

I think Anna Anthropy's has done great work in spreading a sort of punk rock DIY mentality to game creation, and her articles and interviews are always a treat. I found this book to be curiously lacking in passion and depth, however. The title (and statements she's made in interviews, etc.) made me expect an inspirational manifesto, but while the book was logically structured and informative, it lacked much in the way of impact. There wasn't much about people “taking back an art form,” instead the central thesis was more like “Hey, you don't have to be a formally educated programmer to make games. Here are some tools that reduce the barrier to entry.”

The “freaks, normals, amateurs...” subtitle hinted there would be some discussion about the democratization of game development, and how marginalized people were using games as a powerful tool for self-expression, but that topic was only touched upon. One of the appendices introduces some indie games, but the discussion was fairly superficial and there wasn't much to suggest why these particular games are important beyond being made by one or two people and having an offbeat concept. Another appendix suggests tools an aspiring game designer could use to get his or her feet wet, but while interesting, this section is also disappointingly brief.

This wasn't a bad book, per se, just not as radical and impassioned as the title suggested and not as substantial as I had hoped. I'd still recommend Anna Anthropy's work to people interested in game design, but they could probably benefit just as much by saving their $15 bucks and reading some of her blog posts and interviews instead.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on May 2, 2012.

Context: Further Selected Essays on Productivity, Creativity, Parenting, and Politics in the 21st Century

By Cory Doctorow – Tachyon Publications – October 1, 2011

Review by Robin Marx

This is a much more balanced collection of essays than the previous volume, Content. There's still a great deal of material dealing with Doctorow's two favorite topics—the evils of Digital Rights Management software and how “Big Content” is attempting to undermine Internet culture through the abuse of copyright law—but he also mixes it up with a variety of other subjects. There are essays about his approach to writing and what tools he uses, new media versus old media, tips on raising a techno-savvy child, and a critique of the freemium business model.

Context is a more mature volume than its predecessor. When compared to Content, Doctorow seems to have developed as a writer, and his views are more well-rounded and eloquently expressed. Much like the first collection of essays, this book is pretty superfluous for a regular BoingBoing reader, but it should be a worthwhile read for the uninitiated. I recommend that the first book, Content, be skipped entirely in favor of this sequel, as Context touches upon similar topics in a less monotonous manner.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on October 3, 2011.

Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future

By Cory Doctorow – Tachyon Publications – September 15, 2008

Review by Robin Marx

To readers of the BoingBoing blog, Cory Doctorow needs no introduction. The contents of this book will likewise be familiar, as it covers Doctorow's favorite topics, the so-called copyfight struggle of regular folks versus overreaching intellectual property owners, the wrongheadedness of digital rights management technology, and the growing encroachment of government surveillance into everyday life. These are all important topics, and Doctorow handles them deftly. However, like Dawkins' and Hitchens' books about atheism, the people who most need to learn about these topics are also the least likely to pick this book up.

The book also suffers somewhat from a lack of variety, especially during the first half. Taken individually, they're well argued, but because most of the essays are variations of the same few themes, the compilation as a whole suffers.

In the end, it's difficult to determine who to recommend this book to. BoingBoing readers don't really need it; they can just keep reading the blog for up to date arguments on the same topics. It may be more worthwhile for people who don't know much about DRM and the conflict between intellectual property owners and Internet society, but again, I'd probably just direct them to Doctorow's work at BoingBoing instead.

★★★☆☆

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